Winter Begonia, Chapter 4: The Hated Opera man

Winter Begonia 《鬓边不是海棠红》Bin Bian Bu Shi Hai Tang Hong
Winter Begonia, Chapter 4: The Hated Opera man

In addition to the rumors in the Nine Curved Corridors, Cheng Fengtai had actually been in indirect contact with Shang Xirui once. One time he brought a deal for someone, a shipment of fine silk from Jiangnan to Manchuria. The silk was in transit in Beiping, and on the day it arrived, Li Zhanggui of the Rufo Xiang made a trip to Chengfu to pick it up in the scorching heat. Cheng Fengtai told the workers to prepare a ladder for him to open the box and inspect the goods, and Li Zhanggui waved his hands repeatedly, saying that he would not take anything else but two pieces of clothing.


Cheng Fengtai laughed, "Why don't you just send the guys to get it? These two clothes are worthy of your old man to run in the sun for a while, isn't it because of the Empress's cape?"

Li Zhanggui wiped his head full of sweat and his big fan fanned out: "Almost. Serving Empress Wanrong back then, that's all it meant."

Cheng Fengtai was curious and wanted to open his eyes about the world of opera costume clothing. Li Zhanggui had someone carry down a camphor wooden box with a red seal, a camphor wooden box so big that it contained only twelve sets of Chinese dresses and two sweat scarves and two handkerchiefs. Li Zhanggui put on his glasses and spread them out on the table one by one, carefully examining the stitches and threads, while a freighter from Hangzhou said: "To check out good, old rules, please return the original box."

The freight forwarder laughed: "I know, I know! The usual! The girl from our embroidery workshop has been embroidering these clothes for nine months, Li Zhanggui look, the gold threads are all twisted with real gold, not fake at all, and look at the peacock feathers....."

Cheng Fengtai became more and more curious, came closer and pulled the corner of the garment, this garment is really gorgeous and extravagant, the red satin embroidered with gold phoenix, phoenix feathers are delicate; the beads on the tassels, the beads seem to be the real thing. When the Second Mistress married him, she had never worn such a fancy dress before. There were other sets, limp and spirited, and there was a cloud of flowers. The wings of the butterfly reflect the soft light of the satin and come to life like a living creature. The embroiderers must have put all her life's skill into it, cutting a piece of material and framing it, it's a beautiful and delicate painting.

Cheng Fengtai exclaimed, ''That's amazing! The emperor is returning to the court with the empress?"

Li Zhanggui laughed, ''How can I! Can't you see that? It's a costume for singing."

Cheng Fengtai said that no wonder the colors were so bright, but he didn't know which famous actor deserved to wear such exquisite clothes: "I heard that there was a famous actress in Beiping, formerly in the Southern Opera troupe, but now he has left the pavilion, from the Minister of Finance to the Eight Banner Lords. Didn't he reap the mountain and stop singing?"

Li Zhanggui said, "No. You're talking about Niu Jiulang, the Shogun of Liyuan! The old Buddha was a famous back then, and his hand was not as big as this one when he came out of the pavilion - Second Master, guess how much these costumes alone are worth?"

Cheng Fengtai pondered and said, "In my opinion, it must be a thousand, anyway......."

"Eight hundred or a thousand, is just enough for these few beads and gold threads!" Li Zhanggui painfully stretched out four fingers and poked them in front of Cheng Fengtai's face. Cheng Fengtai spread his coat and laughed in surprise, ''Which man is this? Spends more money than I do."

"It's a budding celebrity. Shang Xirui. The Second Master must know him." Li Zhanggui didn't find any stubble and folded the clothes into the box as they were.

"''Shang Xirui of Pingyang, huh?'' Hey, so knowing!" Cheng Fengtai sighed, "In this world, those who work hard do not have enough to eat, but those who sing and perform are so rich!"

Li Zhanggui looked at him and thought to himself, "Poor and hardworking laborers can afford to say that, how can you? Cheng Fengtai aren’t you ashamed of the world eyes? If it wasn't for the fact that there is no law in this world, you wouldn't be able to make money out of the chaos in the city," laughed Shang Xirui, "But there are other places where you don't show off, or where you're willing to spend money on costumes. As long as the clothes look good, any amount of money will do!"

Cheng Fengtai forgot that he had met Shang Xirui himself, at a couple of parties, at a card game. However, everyone knows the hatred between Cheng Meixin and Shang Xirui for taking over her husband, as well as Cheng Fengtai's banditry and Shang Xirui's madness, lest if one of them gets hurt, it will not end well. So no one dared to let them meet, even if they were in the same place, people would try to deliberately separate them.

Shang Xirui is just a quiet and innocent teenager, because of his youth, but also a slightly round and tender female face, while he was wearing a semi-new plain-colored long shirt, he looked very inconspicuous. There were a few times he would rub shoulders and meet mingle with the crowd, and Cheng Fengtai didn't even notice him. Shang Xirui knew who Cheng Fengtai, the younger brother of Cheng Meixin was, and listened to him make jokes with people and tell them aloud. Everywhere he went, it was lively. A man, with nothing to do and three smiles, with a seductive glint in his eyes, more than a playboy, like a man who eats from his face.

The first time the two of them met was at the Huibin Building.

That night, Cheng Fengtai took Cha Cha’er and contacted two old men from the business world. It's all about getting together to eat, drink and gossip. The old men couldn't eat or drink much and scattered after the meal early offering to go to the play. Cheng Fengtai wasn't interested in listening to plays or anything, it was not his style, he just wanted to find a game of mahjong or find a pretty girl to have a drink with. But it's not good to upset the old man when you meet him and want to establish business contacts. When asked where one can listen to a good play, the old men seemed to be prepared, and they all said the same thing: "Tonight is the finale of the show "The Princess is Drunk", so we must not miss it."




The other said, "No, I can't hear Shang Xirui's voice for three days, it's not even sweet enough to eat."

Cheng Fengtai took the old man's cane and smiled, ''Good. Let's just go to the play and watch it."

Cha Cha’er looked at her brother with wide eyes, as if asking where they were going, but still reluctant to speak. In fact, after coming to Beiping, the Cheng family has also held many meetings in the theater garden, but not seen. Cheng Fengtai rubbed the back of his sister's head: "I am taking you to a fresh-topped lively place."

The lights are on in the first light in the Meeting House, the water sign at the door, "Shang Xirui" three characters Pinzhi shaped blinking lights, just like the rumored person, open teeth and claws to bully the onlookers, next to the name of the actor who gave him a supporting role thinly erected on the side, very cold and pathetic. The fog and smoke inside the theatre garden is so thick and foggy that the applause is so loud that it seems like it could explode at any moment. As soon as the driver, Lao Ge, got out of the car, he looked at the "sold out" notice on the ticket counter and whispered to Cheng Fengtai, "Second Master, i don't know if you don't listen to the show. Whenever Shang Xirui's play was going on, where there were many more tickets to buy, the station tickets raised the price to 28 yuans a piece and it was sold out."

Cheng Fengtai said, "Can't get in?"

Lao Ge said, "Of course you can't if you don’t have a ticket."

Cheng Fengtai looked at the two old men in the car and said, "Go to the box and ask one by one, as long as one is willing to make room, money is no problem."

Lao Ge negotiated with the ticket checker at the door for a while, and then with Cha Cha’er for a while, and then helplessly replied, "I asked several people, and they all said that they wouldn't let me give any money in exchange for a seat at their box."

Cheng Fengtai frowned, ''Can't be. Wasn't the price not negotiated?"

"Money doesn't work, Second Master! Undersecretary He and Director Li are there to listen to the play, what will you do ah!"

The people who can still afford to sit in the box at Shang Xirui's venue are already very wealthy, so there's no reason to sell their seats for a little cash. Even under the eyes of the Japanese, he had the ability to go up and down the road a few times, but he never imagined that he would be in trouble today with a little showman.

An old man behind him hugged Cheng Fengtai's shoulders and laughed with him, "You can't just buy the merchant boss's ticket, but Master Cheng might as well use the name of his brother in law Cao Siling."

Cheng Fengtai heard and it turns out that the two old men who also could not book a box and deliberately asked him out today, wanting to band on Cao Siling's brother-in-law to listen to the play. Shang Xirui is really not an idle popular, one can't get a place on the list just because he's rich.

Cheng Fengtai, as Cao Siling's brother-in-law, had nothing to worry about borrowing his brother-in-law's name. And when he did he was given a box reserved for Cao Siling to receive orders. Several people were seated in the second-floor box and a table of tea and fruit snacks was set. Cheng Fengtai looked around and saw that in the box opposite the diagonal, there was a large family of Undersecretary He, and there was actually a Sheng Ziyun in the last seat. Sheng Ziyun, who was a college classmate of He Si's, he certainly didn't get the ticket either, so he was picked up by He Si, who was still dressed in his black scholar uniform with a collar high, sitting upright as if listening to a lesson. It was just that the look on his face was like drunkenness and he couldn't help himself, he was very sick.

Fa Lian said that Sheng Ziyun was a theatrical performer, which really caught the moment. Cheng Fengtai gave him a fierce stare.

Shang Xirui didn't come out for the opening few plays, and the stage played a literary play. Cheng Fengtai was crackling and eating melon seeds, and after that, he's not listening to the words he sings in the play, nor is he interested in understanding them. When his father was alive, the family traveled to a concert on Sunday in full dress, and when the lights went down in the clubhouse, he dozed off. The mother's musical talent was not passed on to him in the slightest. But sometimes Cheng Fengtai also likes to listen to Chopin and Beethoven, and even hired a piano teacher for his sisters, not for the sake of mortification, but just to imitate the scenes of his old Shanghai home. He took a long bag of melon seeds and realized the benefits of Chinese theatre, which is performed on stage had nothing to do with being eaten off stage, and everyone was free and unlike Western opera, which has some rules about sitting uprightly.

The two old men were already drunk, shaking their heads with their eyes closed and grunting straight as they duetted on and off stage. Cheng Fengtai chewed all the melon seeds and started to chew the plum, and after chewing the plum, he felt hungry. He snapped his fingers and wanted to order a bowl of fried noodles, so he bowed his head and listened.

An old man saw Cheng Fengtai's boredom and laughed, "Second Master Cheng, accompanying us to the opera, are you bored?"

Cheng Fengtai laughed, "Honestly, not much in this scene."

The other old man said, "Yeah. Mr. Cheng is from Shanghai and loves to listen to the beach spring and Shaoxing operas, right?"

Cheng Fengtai said, "That one I don't listen to either. My father was the one of those who came back after studying in the West, and our siblings listened to Western music since childhood. These plays - not really played at home. Rather the costumes, and the people, look hilarious and interesting."

The old man stroked his beard and laughed, "Second Master, you already should at least understand half of this." He also lamented, "The world has changed, and the young people of your generation are no longer interested in opera. None of the young lords and ladies in my house wanted to hear a play, but instead went to like the one with no singing voice, what was his name?"

Another interface: "Silent drama. It's a play, right?"

"Yes, yes, drama, drama! Say, don't you think it's time to die when this old ancestor left behind something which they don't love anymore, and run to learn from that Western man."

The two old men sighed in exultation as they spoke of their sadness. After the matinee was over, Shang Xirui came out, dressed in a richly-colored princess costume and with jewels on his head that made one's eyes dizzy. Cheng Fengtai looked at him and said, "This is Shang Xirui, why are you so colorful and skinny? On the contrary, Cha Cha’er was more excited, holding a cup of tea and looking at Shang Xirui, thinking that he was as beautiful as Jian Jian's bright eyes.

As soon as Shang Xirui came out, some people threw up the ocean and jewels, and the applause was loud and clear, and before he even sang, he saw that he was doing well, and Shang Xirui had this treatment.

The first time he saw this, his eyes sparkled with interest. Cheng Fengtai smiled and touched his body, not carrying any money, and there was no point in throwing it. The watch, the watch breaks when you throw it. He took out the middle finger ring made of an emerald-encrusted gold ring and put it in Cha Cha’er's hand: "Come, Cha Cha’er throw one too."




Cha Cha’er walked over to the railing and poked himself out, took the ring and aimed it at Shang Xirui with a hard toss. She only had Shang Xirui in her eyes and threw it at him with too much accuracy. The ring slammed into Shang Xirui's brow bone, knocking him slightly over the head as his eyes quickly slipped past Cheng Fengtai's box.

Cheng Fengtai said in his heart that the gold ring had sunk so much that he was afraid the man would be bruised. Cha Cha'er also panicked and trotted back to tug on her brother's sleeve, a bit panicked. Instead, the two old men laughed and said, ''Third Miss is good! That's a lot of strength and accuracy!"

Cheng Fengtai thought strangely, wondering if they weren't fans of Shang Xirui's show. How can they be so happy to see Shang Xirui get bruised? On second thought, hey! Think of it as Shanghai's opera house again. . Here, the playwright and the prostitute are layers of people - not full people, but stuff, stuff that money can just rub together.

In his father's education, he had to say thank you when the maid brought him a cup of tea in Shanghai, so in his bones, he did not like the sense of inferiority or respect of the Chinese. Patting Cha Cha’er on the back to make her sit down, he said, "It doesn't matter, we Cha Cha’er didn't mean it, later brother will take you to him to apologize."

Both old men knew Cheng Fengtai's style better and laughed darkly, saying that the apology was fake, but Mr. Cheng was looking for a way to see the showman, right?

The blow that Shang Xirui received seemed to hit Sheng Ziyun on the tip of his heart, and he mischievously stood up and looked over to the culprit's side. Cheng Fengtai was speaking with his head sideways, his face not quite distinguishable. As he studied him in a puzzled manner, Cheng Fengtai suddenly turned his face and caught his gaze, and Sheng Ziyun had to come over and greet him.

"Second Brother Cheng."

The old man pushed his glasses and said, "This one?"

Cheng Fengtai said, "My old classmate's brother, the sixth son of the Sheng Family in Shanghai, Sheng Ziyun, is now in college in Beiping."

The old men, in the face of The Sheng Family's fame, put up Sheng Ziyun and complimented the teenager, Toshihiko, Sheng Ziyun shyly exchanged pleasantries one by one.

Cheng Fengtai said, "Well, it's about to start, Young Master Yun goes back and sits."

Sheng Ziyun promised, and just as he turned around, Cheng Fengtai tugged at the hem of his garment and pulled him down, and snapped his teeth in his ear and said, "Wait until I ask you something!"

Sheng Ziyun winced.

On stage, Shang Xirui opened his voice and sang, his voice as bright and clear as a warbler's crow. Cheng Fengtai has seen this play several times with his wife, but only understood two lines - "The ice wheel on the island of the sea is first spinning, see the jade hare, the jade hare rises early again. The ice wheel is far from the island of the sea, and the world is clear."

Further down the line, Cheng Fengtai couldn't remember much again. But Cheng Fengtai, although he didn't know the words, listened quietly to this voice, gradually sensed two meanings, and hummed along gently. Then it was discovered that one of the advantages of Chinese theatre over Western theatre was that the Huqin, with its sharp voice, was so dizzying that even those who did not understand it could not doze off.

A tune sang past and there was a sudden commotion on stage. Many people left their seats indignantly and walked out, while others cheered back.

Cheng Fengtai didn't know exactly, and the old man next to him lamented, ''Ai! This is not happening! Make a good show of your drunkenness!"

The other one said, "No more watching, no more watching. Let's go too!" After saying that, he said goodbye to Cheng Fengtai and agreed on a time for their next meeting, with a very upset look on his face.

Cheng Fengtai followed behind and sent them all the way down, laughing, ''What happened to this play? You're so atmospheric?"

The old man said, "This Shang Xirui, because he is a leader in the pavilion, has made so many changes to the playbook that many of his peers and ticket buyers do not want to see him. I've never seen it before, so I've got to go!"

"In his early years, he was walking around in Shanghai, and when the Shanghainese saw this, they called him a 'Drama demon', and he was proud of it! A good drunken performance! How dare he change that playline! It's time for the country to die!"




The visitors who went out with them heard these words with unanimous approval and made many complaints and comments. Cheng Fengtai didn't understand their comment and politely sent the old man to the car and back to the box to find his sister.





                                        ~ Winter Begonia ~




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